Monday, February 15, 2016

Love Is In The Air '16

Love Is In The Air is a Holiday that has been with us for a long time and has had smaller updates and then was given a Holiday boss. It's also one of the first Holidays to have a mount drop included in the events, with some of the lowest drop rates around. Love Is In The Air is the in-game representation of Valentine's Day, but it lasts for a partial week, running from February 15th through February 29th.

Love Is in The Air by Aketan
Side note: Looking for some new customized Holiday artwork if any artists are interested.

The original version of this in-game Holiday is a lot different than its current incarnation, but the main idea has remained the same throughout the years: Gather Love Token from farming up Lovely Charm Bracelet, snagging a Heart-Shaped Box or two, and doing your round of dailies.

Love Is In The Air is mostly about the things listed above, but there is a nefarious plot underfoot that you need to uncover. Be a detective and gather the clues, confront the patsies, locate the real deal, and take out the trash! And with that little intro, we're going to start right off with the traditional bread-crumb quests that are packaged with every Holiday!
While you just completed the Holiday questline, if you're at max level, you probably also noticed during your time spend in your capital city of choice, that there were some daily quests that you could also be getting done. Aside from the farming, these daily quests are the only other way to get your hands on the Holiday currency of Love Token. If you're looking to get your hands on a lot of stuff in one year, you're going to need more than just a few.

Look out for your friendly, neighborhood Public Relations Agent and be prepared to feel like one of those perfume ladies at the mall. While performing the three following dailies, if at any point you attempt to use one of the items on a target that already has the debuff Sample Satisfaction, you will not receive credit for the item use. Each of these dailies 5 Love Token.
Also, speak with Inspector Snip Snagglebolt/Detective Snap Snagglebolt for another style of daily. The following quests are determined by your current level and the bracket that corresponds with that particular level. Each quest does require a bit of traveling, so be prepared to go somewhere "exotic" to kill these Crown Chemical Co. employees and destroy their wagons with Snagglebolt's Khorium Bomb. As with the sampler dailies, you will be rewarded with 5 Love Token and a sum of gold. There is NOT a new quest for the level bracket of 91+, so you will still be heading to Uldum at level 100.
There is one more set of dailies that we need to cover before we get to our talk about the Apothecary Trio boss fight and the Holiday goodies that you can purchase during this event. Before we get into those dailies though, we need to discuss the farming aspect of this event. First off, you're going to need to speak with Kwee Q. Peddlefeet. There is a clone of this NPC standing at various locations in each capital city.
  1. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Outside of the Trade District Bank in Stormwind City.
  2. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Between the Auction House and Inn in Valley of Strength in Orgrimmar.
  3. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Marble Island South of the Bank in Darnassus.
  4. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Near the Auction House in the Bazaar of Silvermoon City.
  5. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Commons Area near the Bank in Ironforge.
  6. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Center Totem Pole on Lower Rise of Thunder Bluff.
  7. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Outside Eastern Exit in the Exodar.
  8. Kwee Q. Peddlefeet: Throne Room of the Ruins of Lordaeron in the Undercity.
Kwee will give you a Lovely Charm Collector's Kit that needs to remain in your inventory for you to be able to collect Lovely Charm off of level appropriate mobs to a Lovely Charm Bracelet with every ten Lovely Charm. Here is a small list of some farming locations to try and maximize charm gains:
As you create one Lovely Charm Bracelet after another, you have two options. You can turn a single Lovely Charm Bracelet into the Kwee Q. Peddlefeet at each of respective city for the dailies before (and buff card reward), or you can save the Lovely Charm Bracelet to sell on them on the Auction House, or trade in at the Holiday vendor for Love Token at a 1:1 ratio. You also have the opportunity to wear them on lower level twinks or bank toons.
Now that all of the quests and daily quests are out of the way, we can finally get to finishing off the diabolical plot that the Snagglebolts were having you investigate. The men behind hiring Snivel Rustrocket and having him pump his rockets full of a not-so-innocent "love potion"? The Apothecary Trio in charge of the Crown Chemical Co. Apothecary Hummel, Apothecary Baxter, and Apothecary Frye are located inside a special instanced version of the Shadowfang Keep. Before we go any further, this is a reminder that you have to be at level 100 to be able to access this boss. Blizzard has confirmed that all Holiday event bosses will be max level content only. You can queue through the LFD UI by selection the Crown Chemical Co. in the drop-down menu, or you can speak with any Steamwheedle Shyster to be queued up as well. Unlike previous years, you will now spawn directly on the stairs leading down into the courtyard. All three of the Apothecaries must be defeated before you will be able to get any loot.
  1. The Monologue: After Apothecary Hummel's little monologue, the fight will start. For the first eight seconds of the encounter, you will only be dealing with Hummel by himself.
    • Apothecary Hummel
      • Alluring Perfume: This is a constant aura around Hummel for anyone in melee range. This can be easily negated by using the Perfume Neutralizer available on the table next to where the fight takes place.
      • Alluring Perfume Spray: This is Hummel's main attack and it is a melee-range frontal-cone attack that is aimed at his highest threat target, try to aim it away from the group. Or anyone that isn't wearing the correct neutralizer.
      • Chain Reaction: Hummel will spawn a small alchemy table and after 3 seconds, it will explode and damage anyone near it.
  2. The Next Eight Seconds: After eight seconds of dealing with Hummel, he demands that Baxter assist him in trying to kill you. He, of course, listens.
    • Apothecary Baxter
      • Irresistible Cologne: Much like Hummel's Perfume aura, Baxter has a constant melee range aura as well. Also like Hummel's, this can be easily negated by utilizing the Cologne Neutralizer on the same table as the Perfume Neutralizer. Only one can be active at a time.
      • Irresistible Cologne Spray: This is Baxter's main attack and it is a melee-range frontal-cone attack that is aimed at his highest threat target, try to aim it away from the group. Or just anyone that isn't wearing the correct neutralizer.
      • Chain Reaction: Just like Hummel, he will spawn an alchemy table that will explode after 3 seconds, damaging everyone in the immediate vicinity.
  3. Again With the Eight Seconds?: After dealing with those two for eight more seconds, Hummel yells at Apothecary Frye to quit dilly-dallying and get to work on killing us. I'm not entirely sure if he actually listens or not.
    • Apothecary Frye
      • Lingering Fumes: The most annoying part of this entire fight is Frye's inability to be controlled. He has no aggro table and he is constantly throwing out either vials of perfume or cologne that burst into damaging clouds that linger. The neutralizers only work on one of the other type, so you're going to be constantly taking damage once Frye enters the fight. The only good part? He can be stunned. Rotate them.
      • Throw Perfume: Frye will throw out a vial of perfume that will burst into a cloud on the ground, try not to stand in it if you don't have the Perfume Neutralizer.
      • Throw Cologne: Frye will throw out a vial of cologne that will burst into a cloud on the ground, try not to stand in it if you don't have the Cologne Neutralizer.
  4. More Apothecaries?!
    • Crazed Apothecary: These adds will be spawning consistently throughout the entire fight. Due to how short the fight can be though, there have been reports of not a single one of these adds spawning at all. Count your blessings, I guess.
      • Unstable Reaction: If one does happen to spawn during your encounter, it is going to run around aimlessly for a bit and then explode, dealing quite a bit of damage to anyone in the immediate area. They take after Frye and have no aggro table. Avoid at all costs to limit damage taken.
  5. Heart-Shaped Box - Only available on your first kill per day.
    • 5-10x Love Token
    • Forever Lovely Rose: A very simple headpiece involving a rose. For all female toons, it tucks the rose behind an ear. For all male toons, it's placed within the teeth, like a tango dancer.
    • Vile Fumigator's Mask: A gas-mask headpiece with an attached fumigation backpack. The on-use effect is still comically useless.
    • Toxic Wasteling: Teaches the Toxic Wasteling battle pet. It still consumes critters and grows larger as it do so.
    • The Heartbreaker: An interesting item originally built to explode chest cavities. Instead, you just burst into tears. This item was turned into a Toy with the release of Warlords of Draenor and the Toy Box.
    • Big Love Rocket: Big Love Rocket. Do I really have to say anything?
  6. Hummel's Corpse (Loot Phase)
After all of that questing, farming, and boss-killing is finally over, you're probably wondering what to do with all of those (or lack-there-of) Love Token.

Lovely Merchant: Available in a local capital city near you!
And now that you've captured Snivel, busted the Apothecary Trio, crushed their crowns all over the world, it's time to take a moment and make sure that you've finished all of your achievements, before heading back out to continue the endless farm for an infinite supply of Lovely Charm.

Completing all of the necessary achievements below will bestow upon you the title of 'the Love Fool' and grant you the meta achievement: Fool For Love!
And those are all of the ones that are important if you're looking to get yourself that title. If you want more to do, there are a few more that you could focus on if you have any free time left after farming up those Lovely Charm Bracelet.
And now for the special bit at the end for all of you battle pet connoisseurs.

See you all at the end of the Love is in the Air event with my post-holiday completion post!
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